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Several international circular economy strategies and approaches, in Europe and elsewhere, were considered during the development of the draft Circular Economy Strategy. This included, for example, international evidence such as the European Circular Economy Stakeholder platform to assist with the identification of priority sectors.

In June 2023, Zero Waste Scotland published an insights paper to support the Circular Economy Bill process which provided an overview and analysis of existing circular economy legislation internationally, including where duties had been placed on governments to publish circular economy or similar strategies. The paper is available on the Zero Waste Scotland website at https://cdn.zerowastescotland.org.uk/managed-downloads/mf-mr2nqf3d-1686671844d

The Scottish Government is integrating sustainability and green skills, such as circularity, into apprenticeships in Scotland to ensure the system remains flexible and relevant as we transition to net zero.

There is strong emphasis on the delivery of apprenticeships in the sectors that are most vital to Scotland’s economy and society. These include those that support the transition to net zero, and are most likely to result in high quality, long-term employment and meaningful career pathways for participants.

Our apprenticeship programme aims to contribute to supporting net zero emissions by 2045 and Skills Development Scotland has committed to influence the skills system to be responsive to the climate emergency and help embed sustainability into learning provision.

The intention is that the Circular Jobs Tracker will utilise data that is publicly available, including, for example from the Scottish Supply-Use Tables

https://www.gov.scot/publications/input-output-latest and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency's Waste from All Sources dataset (https://www.sepa.org.uk/environment/waste/waste-data/waste-data-reporting/waste-data-for-scotland/).

The Circular Jobs Tracker will be publicly available, and the publishing frequency is yet to be determined.

The Scottish Government’s Building Standards Division (BSD) requires local authority verifiers to notify BSD under Section 34 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 when certain methods are used to demonstrate compliance with mandatory building standards. Specifically, notification is required where:

• BS 8414 fire performance testing and associated guidance in BR 135, or
• Extended field of application assessments under BS 9414

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS) played a key role through participation in expert working groups and panels convened by the Scottish Government, which included consideration of the role of BS8414.

The requested information on how many new midwives and nurses have been recruited at maternity units in each year since 2020-21 is not held centrally.

Information on the number of nurses and midwives employed by each NHS board, as well as the numbers joining the nursing and midwifery job families each year, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence .

The South West Scotland Transport Study (SWSTS) was undertaken as an advance study to feed in to the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) and published in March 2020. It considered the rationale for improvements to road, rail, public transport and active travel on the key strategic corridors including those served by the A77.

As part of the study, a specialist Heavy Goods Vehicle survey noted the range of goods being transported along the A77 between Ayr and Cairnryan from which it was estimated that the value of goods was approximately £10 million per day (2019 estimate).

The importance of the A77 to the economy is recognised by its inclusion in Recommendation 40 of STPR2 which recommends safety, resilience and reliability improvements are made on the A75 and A77 strategic road corridors. These improvements will support economic development in South West of Scotland to benefit the economy and local communities.

The Scottish Government committed in our Programme for Government 2023-24 to ensuring that abortion services are first and foremost a healthcare matter.

That is why in August 2024 I established an Expert Group chaired by Professor Anna Glasier, the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Champion, to provide an independent assessment of the current law on abortion and, if appropriate, make recommendations for reform. The independent Expert Group’s report has been published today.

The Group examined the current law, and reviewed international examples, stakeholder contributions and other evidence. It sets out 36 recommendations for the Scottish Government to consider and the minutes for the Expert Group meetings, along with their terms of reference, can be found here.

The report represents the views of the independent Expert Group, and it will form only one part of the overall review.

The Scottish Government will now begin its own programme of stakeholder engagement on these recommendations with the many individuals and organisations interested in this subject. I am clear that any future consideration of legislative proposals would also be subject to a full public consultation.

Funding for these activities is included within this year’s budgets; future year budgets are to be confirmed. The Zero Waste Scotland Business Information Hub is designed to be an online self-service tool, building business knowledge of circular economy opportunities and benefits and arming businesses with a suite of tools so they can independently take steps to adopt more circular practices.

We have provided over £320 million to our enterprise agencies in 2025-26 to support their work with businesses and communities, which includes support for circular businesses.

The Scottish Government supports the principle of alignment with the EU where it is meaningful to do so and contributes towards maintaining and advancing environmental standards.

This includes developing a producer responsibility approach to textiles and measures to address the disposal of unsold consumer goods, which could include textiles. International waste export legislation is currently a reserved matter for the UK Government; however, the Scottish Government will continue to engage with the UK Government on waste export legislation to seek EU alignment where appropriate.

As set out in the draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland, we are committed to improving the management of post-consumer textiles.

On 17 June 2025 a Scottish Government consultation closed on whether to make kerbside collection of textiles by local authorities a mandatory service. This consultation fulfilled a commitment in the Circular Economy & Waste Route map. Independent analysis of responses to the consultation is now being undertaken and a report will be published in due course which will also inform the co-design work on the Household Recycling Code of Practice.

On 29 November 2024 Scottish Government announced an additional £13.6 million would be invested as part of the General Medical Services uplift in General Practice to support GPs to retain and recruit key staff. This additional funding was to address known financial pressures, support staff costs and enable GPs to take on partners and salaried GP staff.

The £13.6 million was allocated to Health Boards for distribution to Health Boards alongside the £59.6 million GMS uplift agreed following the DDRB’s recommendations with £66.89 million of the total put into the Global Sum, £2.31 million into uplifting Income & Expenses Guarantees and £4 million into increasing Enhanced Services funding.

As the £13.6 million was disbursed to GP practices as part of a wider uplift applied to three components of GP practice funding, it is not possible to say whether GPs were recruited as a direct result.